Last time, I wrote about Showing and Telling, which is basically an explanation of how one writes a story without a narrator. The plan was that I would write about narrators next, to explain how they work. But as I thought about this post, I realized that I never really covered the whole Point of View thing.
Point of View is actually a very nice little tool for writers to use when crafting stories, so I have to admit that it saddens me when I hear/read "I only write in one point of view."
Yes, I know that any writer has a choice to choose how they want to write, but I think any writer should at least try to write in a variety of points of view. If only to strengthen their writing.
I believe that point of view can have a profound effect on the way a writer's story is brought across. Point of view affects everything from the story's feel, to the tone, to your writing style.
Yes, you read that right. It's not necessarily the case of writing style determining point of view. In fact, I more often than not actively try and dissuade writers from this way of thinking. To me, it feels lazy to say "I always write first/third limited/third omniscient person because it's part of my style."
Instead, I believe that such writer's styles could be so much wider if only they were brave enough to try other points of view and see how they worked out. In fact, I wish more young writers would just put more thought into the effect a particular point of view has on a story.
As such, I'm going to explain the point of view possibilities available as well as the overall effect these choices have.
Before I start, though, I want to define two terms to you, since they'll be coming up throughout the rest of this piece.
Narrative distance is the distance between the character and the reader. In other words, how strongly a reader shares in the character's experiences.
Narrative scope is the amount of information that can be brought across by the writer within the story while still reading naturally. To compare with filming, we'd be referring to close-ups or panning shots etc.
When looking at points of view, the two terms are almost always directly related to each other. The closer the narrative distance, the smaller the narrative scope. The wider the narrative distance, the bigger the narrative scope.
However it's important for you to know that there's almost always a trade-off between Narrative Distance and Narrative Scope. It's never fully possible to make the reader share the main character's experiences in a direct, visceral way while still incorporating all information having an effect on those experiences.
This in itself isn't a bad thing. Any writer who has played around with points of view can tell you that you can use any point of view to your advantage. If you know what you want to do, and you know which point of view works best to achieve your goals.
Let me put this in another way:
No point of view is better than the other. It's what the writer does with it that makes the difference.
Everyone have that sink in? Okay good. Now we can start looking at points of view.
First Person
Most people don't realize this, but there are in fact two First Person points of view.
First Person Limited is the most common. It's also the one that most people refer to as first person point of view. (Most people don't even realize the second type exists.) First person has the closest narrative distance, but also the narrowest narrative scope.
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100 Things You Should Know About Writing (Part 1)
Non-FictionThis is about writing, as I think of it. Subjects covered will range from plot aspects to characterization, writing craft to just surviving as a writer. Mainly, Part 1 is a comprehensive list of things to do in order to create and maintain tension.
